The seasons turn and spring has come to Canada once again. As is my custom, I have annotated a list of thought-provoking articles about the state of the music industry. If you would like to learn a little more about what the future might hold, read on.

Five Reasons For a Musician to Consider the Creative Commons is a good introduction to the subject. In essence: Creative Commons licences are non-exclusive, come in several different flavours, don’t inhibit an artist’s ability to profit from their work, serve as good alternatives to traditional collection societies, and are tailor-made for the digital/networked world we live in.

The Art of Handling Criticism Gracefully should be required reading for any artist working in the public eye. Summary: never ever respond to criticism with anger. It solves nothing and makes you look unprofessional, among other things. When things go really wrong it can even trigger a public backlash against your work.

Is the slowdown of digital sales and the rise of free services a sign of the longer term impact of P2P? Piracy only came to the forefront because the music industry fumbled the transition from physical to digital media. They had no problem cashing in from the switches from vinyl to cassette and compact disc but were nowhere to be found when MP3s became popular. The kicker: “How to convince consumers, that have acquired music for free for several years, to now pay for it is a difficult proposition.” Well, no kidding. I don’t think it can be done, not without a genuinely innovative offering at least.

SoundCloud Raining on Its Own Parade is about the conflict between DJ culture and the majors. Apparently there has been a bit of a backlash against the popular social music service since it began removing mixes for containing content released under copyright.

I usually post a lot of interesting content from Music Think Tank but the quality of their articles has gone downhill since the Hypebot takeover. Now it is little more than a wretched hive of social marketing fluff with formulaic titles like “X Ways To X” or “X Reasons Why You Need To X”. Some people may continue to find their content useful, if only as an introduction to the Music 2.0 dogma, but I am tired of writing about it. I did, however, gain some amusement reading an article that described music fans as “transparency-seeking, interactivity-craving, empowerment-hungry monsters”!

Like this post? Feel free to suggest articles for me to include in future editions of the new music digest.